


Better a Door than a Window (so open up and walk on through to me)

by ArtemisEmrys



Category: The Tick (TV 2017), The Tick - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Nothing too explicit, Oblivious Tick, Protective Arthur, as usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 05:48:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16278929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisEmrys/pseuds/ArtemisEmrys
Summary: Dot really needs to learn how to knock.





	Better a Door than a Window (so open up and walk on through to me)

**Author's Note:**

> I really don't know where this came from. I watched 2017's the Tick over 2 days and fell in love with these characters. They make the cutest couple, I swear. There aren't enough Arthur/Tick fics on here, so I made a contribution. This takes place right after season 1 ends. I might write some more of these at some point. If you haven't watched the show I highly recommend it, if you like silliness and superheroes (which I adore). Hope you enjoy this, anyway. The title is a rewording of a quote from the show that Tick says to Arthur. It seemed like a good fit for this.

Using the key that she had kept with her since the day Arthur had moved out of their parents’ house and into his own apartment, Dot unlocked the door and stepped inside. Artur was supposed to meet her down by Goat’s for lunch over a half hour ago. She tried calling, 3 times, and still nothing. She was starting to get worried. Ever since their big show down with the Terror, Arthur and the Tick had been spending more and more time doing their ‘superhero’ thing. Dot participated sometimes, but for the most part the sort of crime they fought didn’t really require her particular… skills.

What if there was big trouble? What if Arthur _couldn’t_ answer his phone?

She had even called Overkill, but neither he or Dangerboat had seen the crime-fighting duo for days. She was really starting to get worried.

Arthur didn’t check up with her everyday now. He was doing much better, at least mentally, since they had foiled the Terror’s evil plans. But she still expected some contact from him, some sign that he was alive, especially now that he was living more dangerously than a simple accountant normally would. Three days with no contact and then not answering his phone was too much. She had to go looking for him.

Naturally, stop number one was his apartment.

Opening the door and stepping in, she looked around for any sign of life or disturbance, apart from the burns on the wall that had been here for weeks. She was opening her mouth to call out her brother’s name when she passed the crumbling half wall into the living room area and froze.

Well, at least she had found Arthur.

At first, she didn’t really recognize what was happening. She could see the back of the Tick’s blue cowl and his broad blue shoulders over the top of the couch. Arthur seemed to be leaning over him and inspecting his odd antenna-things. There was a low rumbling of noise and what sounded like a low sigh. Then she noticed that the two weren’t being quite…still.

Jesus! Her brother was straddling the big blue lug’s lap, rocking his hips into his, while fondling his antennae and peppering kisses all over the unmasked portions of his face. The Tick’s hands were firmly gripped on Arthur’s hips, pulling him down as Tick pushed up into him. The couch creaked slightly under their combined weight and movement. The Tick gave a loud groan and breathed what sounded like a delighted “Arthuuuur!”

Oh hell no.

“What the _fuck_ are you two doing?!”

For just a second, all action on the couch froze.

“Jesus, Dot!” Arthur scrambled upward, face a blazing red, grabbing a pillow off the side of the couch to hide himself behind. “What the hell?!”

The Tick, oblivious as usual, turned his head and his face split into a huge grin. “Sister Dot! What an unexpected surprise!” He stood next to Arthur, slinging an arm around the spluttering smaller man. Of course, he made no move to cover himself, probably didn’t even realize it was necessary. The tight blue suit left nothing to the imagination. Dot studiously kept her eyes at shoulder level.

“D-Dot, you can’t just burst in here like that! Don’t you know how to knock?!” Arhur was glaring at her hard, trying and failing to move forward to cover the Tick’s very obvious erection. The Tick smiled down at him, patted him on the head, and came around the couch to probably hug Dot, hips swinging. Her eyes went wide and she started to back away.

“Oh no, keep that thing away from me!”

“Thing? Come now, Dot, you know that I am the Tick! Legendary hero to all!” He was steadily coming towards her. Arthur grabbed him by the arm and pulled.

“Tick! Stop!”                               

The Tick paused, turning to his sidekick with a frown. “Arthur, you know that I believe hugs are the best greeting of all. Why would you want to deprive your sister of my affections?”

Arthur sighed. “Just… not now Tick. Why…” He paused, trying to think of an activity that would give the big man enough time to… cool off before he traumatized his sister. “Why don’t you go make us all a nice cup of coffee? Remember we got that new flavor? That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

The Tick looked suspicious for all of a second before another broad grin broke across his face. “All right, chum! Coffee it is!” With a chuckle, he moved off towards the kitchen. Arthur heard the beeping of a machine and the very careful clinking of ceramic mugs.

Realizing that after all of that, he had no more reason to hold onto his pillow, he threw it on the couch and stalked over to his sister with an annoyed glare. “Seriously, Dot! Why would you just come bursting in like that?” He hissed in a low whisper.

She glared right back. “I never had to knock before! That’s why I have a key! How was I supposed to know that you two would be… guh! Why? Just…why?”

Arthur put his hands on his hips. “What do you mean. ‘why?’ That’s none of your business!”

“Like hell it isn’t!” She stepped forward. Shaking him slightly by the shoulder. “I thought we agreed no more secrets! And now I find you’ve been hiding this whole… _affair_ from me! How am I supposed to help you if you keep lying to me!” She pointed in the direction of the kitchen, keeping her voice low as not to call attention to their conversation. The big blue hero was staring raptly at the percolating machine, lost in his own world with a grin on his face. “And with the Tick! Of all people!”

Arthur visibly bristled, shaking off her hand. “First off, I didn’t lie to you! This just happened in the last couple of days, and I haven’t told anyone yet! Plus, I don’t have to explain myself to you. This is private, and when and _if_ I decided to tell you was my choice.”

“IF?!”

“Yes, if!” Arthur took a deep breath. “I wasn’t planning on hiding anything from you, anyway, but now I’m not so sure.” He glared again. “Secondly, what do you mean ‘of all people’? What’s wrong with the Tick?”

“He’s… he’s the Tick, Arthur!” She spluttered out a laugh, and then had to look away when the subject of their argument glanced towards them curiously. “He’s a nimrod. And he’s, by all accounts that I can tell, and believe me, after what I just saw, I’m pretty sure, he’s a man! You’ve never shown interests in men before. I think you’re just caught up in the whirlwind of fighting crime, and-”

“Don’t call him stupid!” Arthur yelled, then immediately grimaced and lowered his voice. “What do you know anyway? It doesn’t matter if he’s book smart, he’s loyal, honest, strong, and most of all, cares for me more than anyone. I’d be stupid not to want to be with someone like that, man or woman!” Arthur sighed, suddenly seeming to lose a lot of his anger. He looked at his sister imploringly. “Dot, I thought you of all people would be happy for me. I’ve finally found someone who loves me for me. He thinks its destiny that we met. He’ll never leave me, or hurt me, and I’ll always have someone on my side who doesn’t care how crazy the world thinks I am. Isn’t that enough?” He laughed slightly. “As for being a man, I’ve come to find it doesn’t really matter to me. I’ve never been attracted _to anyone_ before now, I didn’t have what it took to focus that long. It wasn’t until he showed up that I ever even thought about lo… things like this.”

Dot was speechless. Arthur was right. Those are all the things that she had wanted for her brother. Hell, she would kill to have those things in her own life. Arthur was damn lucky to have Tick, even as… naïve as the man could be.  They were like two opposite sides of the same coin. They completed each other in a way that she couldn’t even fathom most of the time and made each other better. Really, it wasn’t much of a surprise that they had taken this step.

“I’m-I’m sorry, Arthur, you’re right.” She rubbed a hand over her eyes. “I guess I was just surprised… and hurt because I thought you were hiding this from me. All those things I said…”

He let out a wobbly smile. “It’s ok. I just want you to be okay with this. I…I need you, Dot. I always will.”

Dot was touched. She guessed deep down, that was the basis of a lot of her fears. uwas finally growing up and moving on. She was afraid he wouldn’t need her anymore, especially now that he had the Tick as a partner for all meanings of the word. Hearing her brother say that she would always be a part of his life was a huge relief. She smiled, pulling him into a one-armed hug.

“It’s okay. I’m sorry. Sometimes I forget that were not trying to be ‘normal’ anymore and I fall back into that old way of thinking.”

Arthur squeezed he back. “I know. Though really, is this much of a surprise? I asked the man to move in with me after two days.”

She snorted lightly. “When you put it that way….”

“Ah, Arthur! If you wanted to be the one to bestow the hug of greeting, you should have just said! She is your sister first, you have first hug dibs!” The two jumped as Tick bounced over happily, dripping coffee out of two over-full mugs. He handed the coffee over to them with a flourish. “For my sweet bubble of hope and his lovely sibling! Coffee is almost as good as Lady Justice!” He wiggled his eyebrows playfully, touching a finger to his lips and stage whispering. “Almost…. but don’t tell her I said that.”

Arthur laughed, leading his boyfriend and sister back over to the table and to the roll of paper towels designated for Tick-made messes. He was just glad that the coffee making activity had calmed the big lug down a bit. As the Tick was instructed to wipe up his spills, he met his sister’s eyes across the table and smiled. Dot smiled back, a little wistfully. She had all the hope in the world for these two.

“Arthur, we should show Dot our new fun ‘making out’ activity!  She will love the noises you make when I put my hand on your-”

“TICK, NO!”

Dot grimaced. It was probably time for her to head home.

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Okay, Dot really would have knocked this time. Really!

It’s just that, it was the middle of the day on a Tuesday.  She knew that was one of Arthur’s work days. There was no reason she knew of that he would be home, and if he was out, the Tick usually was, too. She just wanted to drop off this load of toiletries, cake, and foot cream that her mom and Walter had given to her for Arthur. It was a simple in, out, and on her way to school deal. No problem, right? That’s what she thought, too.

After unlocking the door and peeking into the living room carefully, she breathed a sigh of relief. She headed swiftly over to the small, round table her brother used for meals and began to unload her supplies.

Now, at this point, she should have just finished dropping off her stuff and gone, but damn she had to pee, and she really didn’t want to go all the way to school under so much pressure. Running over, she quickly finished her business and was heading back out when she paused. That’s when she heard the giggling.

And she would have to pass back across the slightly open bedroom door to leave. Damn. Tip-toeing past, she gave into her curiosity and glanced in. All she could see was a broad, pale, muscular back and a shock of dark black hair on the bed and two sets of bare legs. Her eyes went wide, and she tried to step away silently.

Of course, she stepped on the one squeaky floorboard.

There was a pause. “H-hello?”

Shit. She grimaced, squeezing her eyes shut, and sighed. “Oh, hey! It’s just me Dot. I was just dropping some stuff off for mom… I’ll see you later!”

She heard scrambling and whispers, and as she made it back to the living room to grab her bag, Arthur stepped out in a worn grey bathrobe, face and ears red.

“Dot… I thought we talked about this knocking thing. It’s something you have to do now, remember?”

She sighed. “I know, I know. I’m sorry! I really thought you’d be at work…” She shot him a suspicious look. “Why aren’t you, anyway?”

Arthur rolled his eyes. “Got off early. The power is still wonky from that giant robot attack last Thursday. When the internet went down they sent us home.”

“Oh.. okay…” She trailed off into silence, standing awkwardly. After a while, she knew she just had to say something. “Look, I know it’s none of my business, and I shouldn’t even be here, but… Oh, Arthur, how could you?”

He looked nonplussed. “Wh-What? What do you mean?”

She glared. “Don’t play stupid with me, Arthur! The Tick will be heart broken.”

Arthur just stared at her, open-mouthed. He looked like he was gathering himself to respond when a booming voice called out from the bedroom.

“Is that Sister Dot I hear? Oh, how can this day get any sweeter?” Suddenly, the Tick, in full blue glory, was bursting out of the bedroom and lifting her off her feet with a spin and a laugh. “My precious Arthur back from his silly secret identity job early, and beautiful Dot here to brighten our days even further!” He put her down, but not before ruffling her hair. “Destiny can be a kind mistress as much as she can be cruel.”

Arthur rolled his eyes at the ‘secret identity’ comment but couldn’t help but smile at his boyfriend’s antics.

Dot just stared back.

Arthur frowned at her. “Uh… Tick. I need to talk to my sister alone for a minute. Can you run down to Goat’s and pick up a few sandwiches for us. Money is in the usual place.”

“Sure, pal! Anything for my little rainbow of justice!” He gave them both a swift salute. “I will take this opportunity to coast the block for wrong-doings and ne’re-do-wells! Crime never sleeps, especially not in the mid-afternoon!” He was grabbing the money from the jar on he fridge and out the window by the fire escape before either could respond.

Arthur looked back to his sister. “Hey… are you ok?”

She shook her head slightly, still looking dazed. “Hnn… that, that was the Tick in there with you.”

“Yeah, of course it was, why… Hey! You thought I was cheating on Tick?! _Me?!_ And why were you peeking in my room anyway!? _”_

Her eyes were still wide. “I just… I had to pee… and I saw…” She took a calming breath. “I never imagined what he looked like without the suit.”

Arthur suddenly looked worried. “You-you saw that, huh?” He glanced at the window nervously. “Look, do me a favor, and don’t mention that to him, will you? He’s… weird about people seeing him out of his costume. He says he wants it only to be me who seems him that way.” He looked at her seriously. “I think he’d be pretty upset if he knew you saw.”

“I didn’t see much… just his back and hair… and, ok, maybe his legs.” She grimaced. “I promise not to say.”

Arthur nodded. “I can’t believe you thought I was in there cheating on Tick!”

“Hey, I don’t know! You’re living this whole new life now, gallivanting off on adventures, seducing superheroes, flying into danger! For all I know you could be having a different guy here every week.”

“Dot…” Arthur sighed. “I’m still me. You know me. I would never do that to Tick. He’s too good to me. I…I love him.”

Dot finally came out of her shock with her brother’s confession of love. Truly she had never even thought of the Tick without the blue super-suit. To her, you couldn’t have one without the other, but of course that was silly. It’s not like it was a part of him. And Arthur was one of the kindest, pure-hearted people she knew. Of course, he would never deliberately hurt the big lug that way. She felt silly for not realizing it right away.

“I know… and I’m glad. The Tick makes a good brother-in-law.”

Arthur chuckled. “Please don’t let him hear you say that. He’ll be pestering me about it forever…. And I don’t know if I’m ready for marriage yet.”

“My lips are sealed.” She zipped her mouth and threw away the key, just like they used to do when they were kids. “But when you do finally propose, I expect to be your best man.

  
 Arthur smiled. “Of course, sis.”

Suddenly there was a loud crash outside and a manly scream. “FIEND! THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR LITTERING IN THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY OF OURS! LADY JUSTICE WILL CALL YOU TO HEEL!”

Arthur sighed, pulling his robe tighter. “I better get down there.” He shook his head smiling. “Don’t you have school?”

Dot flinched. _Crap!_ She was completely late! She grabbed her bag off the table and headed quickly towards the door. “See you!”

“Dot!” Arthur called before she stepped out into the hall. She turned back to him with an impatient scowl. “Please, knock next time?”

“Yeah, yeah! I know!” And she was gone.

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This time, she really did knock. She knocked twice, and even still didn’t open the door. Oh no, not again. She was not going to get caught up in their weird sexcapades.

However, she was getting frustrated, that once again, she couldn’t seem to reach her brother. When she had called earlier today, all she had gotten was a staticky, panicked sounding voice and the sound of what may have been laser cannons in the background. The call had cut out shortly after that, and then nothing. She called back 4 more times, and nothing. She couldn’t raise Overkill or Dangerboat, either.

After her late shift at the hospital, she had rushed right over only to be met with a closed door and the silent apartment behind it. She was seriously considering just saying the hell with it, and bursting in anyway. If they were fisting on the couch or something, it’s their fault for not answering.

Just as she pulled out her key with a sense of dread, a throat cleared behind her. She quickly turned to find the old lady from the apartment across the way smiling kindly at her from her open door.

“If you’re looking for the big blue fella and the bunny man, I saw them head up to the roof just a bit ago, honey.” She sounded like she smoked 8 packs of cigarettes a day, but her eyes were sincere. “Big one was shouting about surveyin’ the city.”

Dot smiled back. “Oh, thank you ma’am. I’ll go check up there.” The old lady nodded and closed her door. Dot heard about 6 bolts and at least one chain lock slide into place. Yeesh.

Taking the steps, she headed up the last four flights to the roof. She knew from coming up here with Arthur that the elevator went to the seventh floor but didn’t go up one more level to the roof. Pushing open the rusty door, she strode out onto the gravel, glancing around for her brother, or failing that, the Tick. She hoped they hadn’t hopped off and gone patrolling. She was going to kill Arthur for nor calling her back…

For the third time in as many weeks, she stopped in her tracks. The tableau she came upon was lovely. The city light gleamed in the dark of the night, the moon huge in the sky beyond the buildings. The sound of traffic was far away enough not to be overwhelming but lent a soothing backdrop to the gorgeous vista of the City.

At the edge of the building, sitting on the ledge was the Tick and her brother, both still fully costumed, looking a little ruffled and soot-covered, but not worse for the wear. Arthur leaned into Tick’s side and his arm was around his waist. He was bent down nearly double as he placed soft open-mouthed kisses around her brother’s face. Arthur was smiling and laughing, trying and failing to playfully push the Tick away. The Tick was chuckling, a huge smile on his face. The fingers of their left hands were intertwined.

They both looked deliriously happy.

Backing away towards the door, Dot sighed to herself. She would stop by tomorrow to harass her brother for ignoring her calls. He looked like he had a lot on his mind right now. She’d hate to break in on another one of their moments.

Quietly making her way back down the stairs and out of the apartment complex, she smiled. For once, she was glad not to have knocked. She wouldn’t have wanted to miss that look on her bother’s face for anything in the world.

Fin.

 

 


End file.
